Getting The Most From A Super Bowl Spend

As Super Bowl XLVII approaches, many marketers and advertisers are scrambling to find ways to ensure maximum returns on their ad spends.

Tim Calkins,
clinical professor of marketing at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and co-author of the annual Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review, has some suggestions for
marketers and advertisers who want to get the most out of their Super Bowl buy:

Start early: People start talking about the Super Bowl well before the game actually happens. This
is true for both the teams and the advertisers. To get the most from an ad buy, a company should launch PR and social media campaigns several weeks before the game starts.

Focus on branding: One of the most common mistakes advertisers make is that they neglect to focus on the brand; in a bid to attract attention they focus on the creative elements and the brand gets
lost. If viewers don’t know exactly who is advertising and for what, the ad will fall flat.

Launch a campaign: The most successful Super Bowl advertisers think of the
game as just one part of a larger marketing campaign. So when creating a spot, it is important to consider how the creative can extend into other marketing elements. What comes next?

One of the most common mistakes even 15 years after it became obvious is to make sure your paid and organic search campaigns are ready for the surge in interest that a well-executed TV spot running in the Super Bowl can produce. Within the last three years one should add social activation strategies to the list as well.